Comments

Any boys club dynamic that is formed and defended ends up making a lot of dudes look pretty "cringey". It often rots a space at its core, dismissing the need for it to be a safe space for women and queer folk.

selver wrote at June 18, 2018 at 10:30 PM
(edited at June 18, 2018 at 10:32 PM)

Ironically using words like "comrade" & "masses" is almost worse at this point. At least the old Maoist I know sincerely calling everyone comrade and mistakenly referring to the one old white dude in our horizontal org as "chairman" for a decade is a bit endearing.

For me it's blatant entryism. Boring white dudes using every opportunity they can to give their 19th century class struggle speech while shilling for their dogshit org, selling their lame newspaper. I really cannot stand people who repeatedly give socialism 101 political speeches to the already converted. Had a guy pulling that shit at a 10 person meeting the other night. Like, why the fuck do you think we're all here, we clearly know about neoliberalism already.

GrimWillow wrote at June 18, 2018 at 9:48 PM
(edited at June 18, 2018 at 9:48 PM)

I'm happy with people using the word comrade, though I don't. It's probably also associated with very different things where I'm from - usually anti-colonial liberation movements.

I don't cringe much at people, I think. Mostly just critique. But probably I'd say various elements of leftism itself, as instantiated in much of the places I spend time. It's just largely outdated, often class-reductionist and workerist, often nationalist (in the African nationalist sense, not the white nationalist sense), and just rolling through tropes that will by my best judgement lead nowhere. It's also almost invariably statist and patriarchal. eh. Really its more just bad (and therefore painful) than cringey.

I don't have anything against "comrade" either. It's just a word, not an ethnic slur. It seems an odd thing to get upset about, though if someone else were to call me on my usage, I would say, "Sorry," and try not to use that word, because I recognize that other people aren't identical to me and have different thoughts, feelings, and emotional needs than I do. It's called "not being an asshole" and it's sad how so many seem to suck at it.

I find it funny that it was Zizek of all people that help me break out this phase. That communism as god substitute speech hit too close to home. Cried that day. I like to think of it as the second time I became an atheist.

Generally the Brosocialist aspect, smug cisgender White boys patronizingly lecturing women or minority groups, about how they simply must ignore their issues, because Class is more important. I agree that Class is important, but it is very reductionist thinking to assume that it is the only issue that matters and that it affects all people equally.

Even LBJ said that Black Poverty wasn't the same as White Poverty and it remains the truth. Intersectionality and Identity Politics matter and aren't distractions that can be shunted to the side and ignored, until we've solved poverty forever. Bigotry and oppression isn't a to-do list, where we list our objectives in terms of priority and go down the list. I simply cannot believe that after carefully checking off "Solve Poverty," everyone will look at each other and be like, "Whelp, that's taken care of. Let's work on Racism." Like Audre Lorde said: “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”

It's also a handy way of dodging the fact that as White Men, they actually benefit from Identity Politics. Society is centered around them and their needs, whereas Women and PoC have constantly had to fight for what's rightfully due to them. White Men have the luxury of being able to ignore the reality of Identity Politics, but Women and PoC are drafted into the fight almost as soon as they are born. We can't ignore Identity Politics; we're up to our necks in it.

The Left is centered around the idea that all people should be free to express themselves and live their lives as they see fit, so long as it harms no one else in the process. Identity Politics isn't a distraction from the cause; it is the cause itself.

Proselytes can be very cringey in general. But the term is also a defusement tactic I've started using with people who use "SJW" because it's common internet slang (when said people are otherwise fairly decent). I merely point out that what the 'net has taught them to cringe at are often people who have recently had their eyes opened to the injustices of the world, and that there are growing pains involved in that